I have officially departed. Thank you all so much for the great send-off. You have all been terrifically kind during the last couple of weeks. I will definitely miss you guys over the next year.

The packing was hectic; I haven’t slept more than 5 hours a night for the last week but with some help, I managed to get it all done.

My life for the next year is reduced to the following:

For those of you wondering what’s up with the weird back-pack, I bought a large duffle bag at MEC to put the pack into when I go on planes. It makes it much easier to secure my stuff.

Out of sheer curiosity, I took the Union Pearson Express train to the airport today. I don’t think I’ll be repeating the experience. As I’ve said before, the $27 price is far too much. I also didn’t realize that the bloody terminal is a good 10 minute walk from the subway platform and you get sent through a labyrinth to get there. The train itself was fine and drops you off at a pretty convenient location in Terminal 1, but I think I’ll stick to going to the airport via $3 TTC token.

Here’s a picture of me on the train:

I’ll try my best to keep this blog up to date, so hopefully this will be a good way to keep track of my comings and goings, and most importantly, a good way to confirm that I am indeed still alive.